CSM Cantiga 113 Lyrics: Por razôn tenno d' obedecer †Cantiga 113From reading Mettmann's notes, and examining the facsimiles, it's clear that this cantiga was subjected to more than its fair share of revisions, and yet descrepancies remain which create difficulties with fitting all the words to the music. It seems that this isn't just a problem for us modern interpreters either, as this cantiga is unique in being the only one in [T] that has no music (see the facsimile link on the Resources tab), which suggests that the musical copyists of that manuscript realised the problem too but never got around to sorting it out. Stephen Parkinson reconstructs a highly detailed, occasionally speculative but largely convincing account of the cantiga's evolution in [SP2007], and I recommend reading this if you have access. My own solutions, in which I try to diverge as little as possible from the surviving manuscripts, are given in the individual footnotes below.

Standard spelling

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que quando morreu por nós ben sei†CSM 113:3Mettmann suggests that the "primitive" metrical schema for the refrain may have been 9-9-9-9, but his own version comes out as 9-8-8-9. Given the words and music as they appear in [E], however, I have chosen to diverge at this point and go for a 9-8-9-8 refrain, and have thus restored the word ben from [E] in this line, and reduced Mettmann's porende to porên (= [E]porend, [T]por en) in the next.

9 B

4

que porên se foron fender.†CSM 113:4See note to line 3.

8 A

Stanza I

5

Desto direi un miragre | mui grande que contar oí

7' | 8 c

6

qu' en Monssarraz fez a Virgen | e que ben parece oj' i,†CSM 113:6The [E] manuscript, and Elmes' edition, have one syllable and one note too many for the first hemistich of this line, meaning that the music does not fit the remaining stanzas. Looking at [E] though it is quite clear that the line originally said que en Monssaz fez a Virgen which, though wrong, scans correctly. Then the missing syllable in Monssarraz was noticed, written above the word, and an extra note was squeezed in for it. Mettmann's solution of eliding que en to qu' en (as in [T]) is good, and I follow it here. Musically, we just have to remove the punctum.o that was added to [E] as an afterthought, as indicated by the deletion at E1 on the Music tab. In Elmes' edition, this means replacing the two F crotchets in the second bar of line 7 with one F minim (thereby rectifying the obvious mismatch with lines 2, 4–6, 8 and 10), and adjusting the underlaid text accordingly.

7' | 8 c

7

dũa pena que se mover†CSM 113:7This line is also too long in [E], where the text is dũa pena que se foi mover (followed by mui grand' e leixou-se caer in the final line), and the extra word foi gets its own plica.ron. In order to fit all stanzas, I suggest using the wording shown here (from [T]), and correcting the music as shown at E2 on the Music tab, joining .ron (over foi) and .oron (over mo-) into a single .eyeyeye ligature over mo-, but keeping the same pitches and rhythm. To fix Elmes' edition, this just means converting the fourth bar of line 9 into a single long ligature (AGFE).

Dit' esto, saíron fóra | da eigrej' e viron estar†CSM 113:21This whole stanza is a bit of a metrical disaster in Mettmann's text. For this line, I'd previously suggested synaeresis in saíron to fix the metrical surplus, but on further consideration this seems awkward and implausible with the vowels a and stressed í. Instead, I now prefer just to replace the original first word Dizend' (saying) with the past participle Dit' (= ditosaid). This barely affects the meaning, especially given that the phrase is rather formulaic anyway, and the result is just a variation on Esto dito and Esto dit' which are found elsewhere.

7' | 8 c

22

o penedo que caera, | que Déus fezéra desvïar;†CSM 113:22To fix the metrical shortfall in the second hemistich of this line, I had previously marked diaeresis in Deus to give it two syllables. However, whilst the close diphthong [eu̯] is frequently subject to diaeresis elsewhere (most often in preterite verb forms) this is never the case for the open diphthong [ɛu̯] which occurs in Déus, and I now believe that diaeresis is best avoided. Instead, I have taken a suggestion from the footnotes to the draft version of this cantiga in the Oxford CSM Database (as of mid-October 2012) and replaced the preterite fezo with the pluperfect fezéra, something that the original poets appear to have done quite readily when an extra syllable was required, regardless of the (minor) effect on meaning.

7' | 8 c

23

E começaron Déus ⌧ beinzer†CSM 113:23[E] has & começaron Deus a bẽeizer, and [T] has & começar Deus a bẽizer. Mettmann has just começaron Deus a bẽizer, apparently deleting the conjunction to mitigate the metrical surplus, even though it looks stylistically necessary. The following word começar in [T] is very strange and must be a scribal error: neither infinitive nor future subjunctive make any grammatical sense in this position. The [T] form bẽizer (or beĩzer, with the tilde floating between e and i in typical manuscript fashion) is also odd. My assumption is that it is intended as a two-syllable word, pronounced [bei̯nʣeɾ] with the same stressed sound as treinta, and functionally equivalent to synaeresis in the normal three-syllable bẽ•ei•zer. All in all, it's a tricky line to sort out. However, Stephen Parkinson notes in [SP2007] that the preposition a is not essential between the verb começar and its complement, citing CSM 84:53Enton [...] começaron bẽeizer // a Virgen Santa Maria as evidence. I have therefore decided to reject Mettmann's deletion of E on stylistic grounds, and to sacrifice the a instead. This, in combination with the two-syllable bẽizer, which I have respelled beinzer to clarify the pronunciation, gives the desired syllable count, and rhymes, and makes sense.

Déus, sa Madre grorïosa, | vêeno quantos que i van†CSM 113:26In the absence of any attractive options for fashioning an extra syllable from the existing words in Mettmann's version of this line, I have added the word que after quantos on the model of CSM 165:23 (ta mercee non fal // a quantos que a demandan) and CSM 386:30 (e dest' acordados // foron quantos que i eran des Tui ata Ocanna).

7' | 8 c

27

a Monssarraz, e an prazer

8 A

28

e do séu van i oferer.

8 A

Por razôn tenno d' obedecer...

Footnotes

From reading Mettmann's notes, and examining the facsimiles, it's clear that this cantiga was subjected to more than its fair share of revisions, and yet descrepancies remain which create difficulties with fitting all the words to the music. It seems that this isn't just a problem for us modern interpreters either, as this cantiga is unique in being the only one in [T] that has no music (see the facsimile link on the Resources tab), which suggests that the musical copyists of that manuscript realised the problem too but never got around to sorting it out. Stephen Parkinson reconstructs a highly detailed, occasionally speculative but largely convincing account of the cantiga's evolution in [SP2007], and I recommend reading this if you have access. My own solutions, in which I try to diverge as little as possible from the surviving manuscripts, are given in the individual footnotes below.

Mettmann suggests that the "primitive" metrical schema for the refrain may have been 9-9-9-9, but his own version comes out as 9-8-8-9. Given the words and music as they appear in [E], however, I have chosen to diverge at this point and go for a 9-8-9-8 refrain, and have thus restored the word ben from [E] in this line, and reduced Mettmann's porende to porên (= [E]porend, [T]por en) in the next.

The [E] manuscript, and Elmes' edition, have one syllable and one note too many for the first hemistich of this line, meaning that the music does not fit the remaining stanzas. Looking at [E] though it is quite clear that the line originally said que en Monssaz fez a Virgen which, though wrong, scans correctly. Then the missing syllable in Monssarraz was noticed, written above the word, and an extra note was squeezed in for it. Mettmann's solution of eliding que en to qu' en (as in [T]) is good, and I follow it here. Musically, we just have to remove the punctum.o that was added to [E] as an afterthought, as indicated by the deletion at E1 on the Music tab. In Elmes' edition, this means replacing the two F crotchets in the second bar of line 7 with one F minim (thereby rectifying the obvious mismatch with lines 2, 4–6, 8 and 10), and adjusting the underlaid text accordingly.

This line is also too long in [E], where the text is dũa pena que se foi mover (followed by mui grand' e leixou-se caer in the final line), and the extra word foi gets its own plica.ron. In order to fit all stanzas, I suggest using the wording shown here (from [T]), and correcting the music as shown at E2 on the Music tab, joining .ron (over foi) and .oron (over mo-) into a single .eyeyeye ligature over mo-, but keeping the same pitches and rhythm. To fix Elmes' edition, this just means converting the fourth bar of line 9 into a single long ligature (AGFE).

This whole stanza is a bit of a metrical disaster in Mettmann's text. For this line, I'd previously suggested synaeresis in saíron to fix the metrical surplus, but on further consideration this seems awkward and implausible with the vowels a and stressed í. Instead, I now prefer just to replace the original first word Dizend' (saying) with the past participle Dit' (= ditosaid). This barely affects the meaning, especially given that the phrase is rather formulaic anyway, and the result is just a variation on Esto dito and Esto dit' which are found elsewhere.

To fix the metrical shortfall in the second hemistich of this line, I had previously marked diaeresis in Deus to give it two syllables. However, whilst the close diphthong [eu̯] is frequently subject to diaeresis elsewhere (most often in preterite verb forms) this is never the case for the open diphthong [ɛu̯] which occurs in Déus, and I now believe that diaeresis is best avoided. Instead, I have taken a suggestion from the footnotes to the draft version of this cantiga in the Oxford CSM Database (as of mid-October 2012) and replaced the preterite fezo with the pluperfect fezéra, something that the original poets appear to have done quite readily when an extra syllable was required, regardless of the (minor) effect on meaning.

[E] has & começaron Deus a bẽeizer, and [T] has & começar Deus a bẽizer. Mettmann has just começaron Deus a bẽizer, apparently deleting the conjunction to mitigate the metrical surplus, even though it looks stylistically necessary. The following word começar in [T] is very strange and must be a scribal error: neither infinitive nor future subjunctive make any grammatical sense in this position. The [T] form bẽizer (or beĩzer, with the tilde floating between e and i in typical manuscript fashion) is also odd. My assumption is that it is intended as a two-syllable word, pronounced [bei̯nʣeɾ] with the same stressed sound as treinta, and functionally equivalent to synaeresis in the normal three-syllable bẽ•ei•zer. All in all, it's a tricky line to sort out. However, Stephen Parkinson notes in [SP2007] that the preposition a is not essential between the verb começar and its complement, citing CSM 84:53Enton [...] começaron bẽeizer // a Virgen Santa Maria as evidence. I have therefore decided to reject Mettmann's deletion of E on stylistic grounds, and to sacrifice the a instead. This, in combination with the two-syllable bẽizer, which I have respelled beinzer to clarify the pronunciation, gives the desired syllable count, and rhymes, and makes sense.

In the absence of any attractive options for fashioning an extra syllable from the existing words in Mettmann's version of this line, I have added the word que after quantos on the model of CSM 165:23 (ta mercee non fal // a quantos que a demandan) and CSM 386:30 (e dest' acordados // foron quantos que i eran des Tui ata Ocanna).

Standard spelling

Expand editsNumber notes and ligaturesExpand long plicas and augmented notesZoom

Footnotes

E1:

See the note to line 6 of the lyrics for explanation of this deletion.

Oxford CSM Database record

Links to the Oxford database are provided with the kind permission of the project team.
When planning a concert or recording, I would recommend that you use (and credit) my more pragmatic texts and supporting
materials in the preparation of your performance, but that you request permission from the Oxford database team to
reproduce (and credit) their own critically edited texts in your programme or liner notes, as these adhere to
stricter criteria that keep them closer to the original sources, and undoubtedly have the greater academic authority.

Metrical summary

Refrain

9 8 9 8

Stanzas

7' | 8 7' | 8 8 8

Rhyme

ABBA / ccAA

R

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

A

eɾ

B

ei̯

c

i

iɾ

al

ɛu̯s

aɾ

aŋ

Estimated performance times

Average syllables / min.

Time

Very slow

50

10:31

Slow

100

5:15

Medium

150

3:30

Fast

200

2:37

Very fast

250

2:06

These are very approximate total times for a full sung (or spoken) performance of all stanzas with all repeats of the refrain.
Note that the speed is in average syllables per minute, and no particular mensural interpretation is assumed.
More ornamented music will reduce the syllabic speed considerably. Remember also to add time for instrumental preludes,
interludes and postludes.

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